Mets Sign Old Guys
November 30, 2006 by Geoff Young
Filed under Hot Stove
Names and numbers up front this time:
- Jose Valentin: 1 year, $3.8 million
- Orlando Hernandez: 2 years, $12 million
- Damion Easley: 1 year, $850,000
- Moises Alou: 1 year, $8.5 million
Jose Valentin
Valentin came back from the dead (and the Dodgers, where he hit .170/.326/.265 as a 35-year-old) to put up some serious numbers (.271/.330/.490) for the New York Mets in 2006. At his age, the odds of a repeat are remote. Still, the Mets aren’t committing a lot of money and it’s only a 1-year deal. Even if he can’t play most every day, Valentin should be useful as a guy who can fill in at a few different positions.
Orlando Hernandez
I guess $6 million a year is the going rate for mediocre 40-something right-handers. Hernandez’ contract is almost identical to that of the Astros’ Woody Williams. It’s fair enough in the current market, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable paying (or seeing my team pay) that kind of money to that kind of pitcher.
Damion Easley
Easley is a spare part who, unlike certain players named Alex Cora, is being paid as such. Actually, that’s not fair; Easley is a better player than Cora. Next to the Sean Casey signing, this is one of the more prudent deals of the off-season so far. There isn’t much upside, but at that price, there doesn’t need to be.
Moises Alou
Alou is a great pickup for the Mets. With prospect Lastings Milledge waiting in the wings but not quite ready for prime time, the Mets need only a stopgap solution in the outfield. Alou should be good for about 120 games and, barring precipitous decline (always a possibility at his age), will be a relative bargain for a single season.
For a team that has a kid like Milledge in the system, getting knee-deep into the Carlos Lee or Alfonso Soriano sweepstakes didn’t make much sense. Alou provides a terrific short-term answer for the Mets that also buys one of baseball’s brightest prospects a little more time to develop.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] The New York Yankees re-signed right-hander Mike Mussina to a 2-year, $23 million deal. The soon-to-be 38-year-old Mussina is coming off a surprisingly effective season for a Yankees team that had very little in the way of quality pitching. Although $11.5 million a year might seem like an outrageous amount, when you account for the Yankees’ spending capabilities, it’s really not all that different from what the Astros are paying Woody Williams or the Mets are paying Orlando Hernandez. [...]